Since its publication in France in May, Douglas Kennedy's The Woman in the Fifth has sold more than 200,000 copies and dominated best-seller lists. It will enjoy similar success when it appears in a dozen other countries over the next few months. That's an easy prediction to make because a) like the American author's six previous novels, this one is brisk and brainy and b) each of those has sold at least half a million copies.

Just don't look for The Woman in the Fifth here in the U.S.: it does not have a publisher. Kennedy, 52, is an international literary...